From: "Fernando Cacciola" <fernando_cacciola@hotmail.com>
Rob Stewart wrote:
First, I'll describe what I think the right behavior is; this may be exactly how optional works now or it may not be. I haven't compared this description to optional's documentation.
OK. You just described Joel's proposed behaviour, and, from your test results, it's clear that at least you wouldn't be confused about the fact that in one case it binds while in the other it doesn't. Now I wonder how would that be in real code... I mean, in my example you could infer from the context that 'o' was null in one of the cases... but what if you can't tell that? you wouldn't be able from context alone to know the expected effect of assignment. That's real problem don't you agree?
I agree that's a real problem and even more so in generic code that might try to work with any OptionalPointee. -- Rob Stewart stewart@sig.com Software Engineer http://www.sig.com Susquehanna International Group, LLP using std::disclaimer;